LBF+Analysis

Executive Summary
The first thing I did was browse through some of people descriptions of experiences they found to be either fun or boring, making notes of any patterns that emerged. Then i preformed several filters on the responses to get a more detailed analysis. Using this information with the information they gave us on what was expected of them in each of the experiences, I was able to draw conclusions as to what makes things boring or fun for different people.

What Makes Learning Boring?
1. One of the first things I noticed in the responses about the boring experience was that nearly all of them occurred in a formal classroom setting. This trend is something I expected to see due to lack of choice (and perhaps interest) in the instruction. What I did not expect to see was the large number of fun experiences which also occurred in a formal and/or required instruction. Nearly 2/3 cited experiences that occurred in formal classroom environment.

2. Regardless of the age, gender, or education level, the majority of respondents felt that their instructor was largely responsible for their boring learning experience. Della insists that "The instructor definately played a HUGE part in making the overall experience boring," and another respondent asserts that "Class was boring because of teacher." One reason for this is that in over 70% of the experiences learners were expected to sit still, watch, and listen to instructors who were in many cases described as being monotone, bland, dull, dry, flat, uninteresting or unenthusiastic.

3. In many of these experience the lack of interaction contributed to them being boring. At least 2/3 of the people reported that they were definitely not expected to interact with the instructor, other students, or artifacts and technology. Less than 10% were definitely expected to have some sort of human interaction. Many of the experiences describe lectures where the professor just read out of a textbook or off a powerpoint presentation, or criticize the instruction because of it's lack of interaction. ArcheryNoni, for example, recalls an experience that "was supposed to be a hands-on learning experience ... Instead it was a lecture with no interaction and no hands-on activities."

4. Nearly half of the people who's experience occurred in a classroom setting when they were between the ages of 14 and 23 expressed that the kind of information they were being taught was too trivial, fact-oriented, or not though provoking enough. This attitude is expressed by DG who says, "The instructor and his lecture was in no way thought provoking. He overloaded us with trivial information and failed to show the bigger picture of these events in history." The statistics support this information showing that in most of the boring experiences, students were expected to sit and listen, with less than 20% expected to do any kind of critical or creating thinking.

5. Many students mentioned that they were required to taking tests which did not adequately describe what they knew about the topic. 2/3 of teachers relied upon memorization of the students, asking them to remember things. Appletown Androids experience is one which supports this finding. He details, "There was no hands-on experience with the actual equipment so the instructional style forced rote memorization."

What Makes Learning Fun?
1. For most of the fun experiences, respondents reported that they were expected to do a variety of things, contributing to the fun. As opposed to the boring experiences during which students were expected to sit, watch, and listen, during the fun experiences at least half of the students reported that they were expected to move around, preform or present, and have interaction with students, the teacher, or technology. Scott states that in his experience the teacher used a "variety of teaching methods."

2. Amongst the less-educated people who had not completed high school, a greater emphasis was put on moving around that was in the majority of the examples. 90% reported that they were definitely expected to, while only 48% of the general population expressed this requirement. Additionally, this younger group didn't find creative and critical thinking to be as important as most other people did. It was expect in 1/3 of the experiences of the less-education, while the average of the whole was closer to 2/3.

3. While most people's fun experience occurred in a formal setting, the majoring of those that did not talked about the experience they had when taking a trip. At least 30 people mentioned going on a field trip, like Slappy and Rich's Dad who talked about trips they had taken to museums.

4. While what was expected of learners during their experience was generally consistent across genders, the males were more likely to have interacted with an artifact or the technology and the females were more like to have preformed of presented. The difference of about 10% in both of these cases is small, yet it is statistically significant. Female Tazumi describes an experience where her class was "divided into groups and asked to discuss the questions and present our opinions to the class." Male students often spoke of the technology they used such as the "hands on training with testing equipment such as the oscilloscope and many more measuring devices" that Bob Ray spoke of.

5. Despite what I predicted, respondents were not more likely to have their fun experience at a young age or their boring one when they were older. The age range on both experience was 70 years, with an average of between 15-17. People like hadi said their experience occurred when they were as young as 2 years old.

Implications
I do not intend to seek a career in formal education or training, however I do see the knowledge here as being relevant in my everyday life. Any time in the future when I am trying to get a point across to a person or a group, I know that they will be more interested in what I have to say if I am interacting with them by having a conversation and asking them questions that force them to think critically. This will make my point more effective than if I were to merely talk at them. I recently joined a 9/11 truth group where I can use these tactics. The current leader of the group in an overbearing, in-your-face extremist who likes to tell it like it is. This approach, however, all to often puts people on the defensive and makes them unwilling to listen. Raising the involvement and interaction could raise the interest.